Learn how to use your database to make your Ruby on Rails applications rock solid.

Rails is an extremely opinionated framework, and our job as professional software developers is to find the “sweet spot” compromise between technologies. Databases have endured a lot of flak from the Rails camp, but they can do some pretty fantastic things. We can make our software better by spending some time to get to know them. Your database wants to be your friend.

A full day training session on using your database to solve the problems that affect every large application.

Yesterday's training with @xshay was the best workshop I've ever attended. Sign up now — you need it! - Geoff Grosenbach, Peepcode

I'm not talking about going back to the days of “enterprisey” stored procedures. Nobody wants that. I will show you that your database has more to offer you than just being a “big hash in the sky”.

Is this course for you?

I designed this course after talking to many of my colleagues who had been using Rails for a few years, and their sites have grown quite large in that time. The early stage was behind them: these were apps that were seeing some serious traffic and turning a profit. They were starting to see problems as traffic had grown, as code that started out as just a prototype started breaking at the seams.

Many of them had computer science backgrounds and had a general idea about what they needed to do with regards to integrity and concurrency, but weren't sure the best way to go about it in a practical setting. I had already been through this process, and spent a large amount of time figuring out the best way to tackle these problems with Rails. My goal with this training is to save you that time.

This course will save you weeks of headaches, troubleshooting and dirty hacks.

If you answer yes to any of the following, you are who I specifically designed this training for:

You know what a foreign key is, but don't use them with Rails.

You're not sure whether you should be using locking.

You have seen "weird" errors with data that shouldn't have been there.

You want to use Rails at work, but you (or your boss!) are not convinced it's "enterprise ready".

create_table(:orders) do |t|
t.string :customer_email
end
class Order
has_many :line_items
validates_presence_of :customer_email
end

I wouldn't blame you. That's the "Rails Way". Problem is it starts to break down fast when your site starts to grow, and that's just the basic stuff! I hope you're not using acts_as_list or acts_as_state_machine and expecting them to do anything more than hold together a prototype… (New! Watch thesescreencasts to find out more)

Perhaps you already get weird nils in production? Orders get checked off twice? This training is for you. You need to know about these principles, even if only so you know the cost of ignoring them. If you're building a web application without this knowledge, you're doing it wrong.

Yesterday's "DB is your friend" course by @xshay was phenomenal! I highly recommend going if you can. What you learn may terrify you... - Josh Price, Canoniq

Curriculum

Your database deserves more than to be treated as a second rate hash in the sky. The Rails Way will let you down when it comes to building solid production applications. When done properly, working with your database is not a "vile and reckless destroyer of coherence" (DHH said that)—rather it increases your velocity, quality, and ability to get things done.

Essential knowledge for developers, too long ignored by the rails community. Get the low down on:

All theory is backed with tiered rails and ActiveRecord examples, such that beginners can follow along, but there's plenty of bonus material for even the most skilled Rails ninja (or for you to take home and work on later, I'll still be available on email and skype if you have questions). This is a practical course: you will pick up skills that you can apply the very next day.

This isn't a sit-back-and-be-schooled session! Bring your laptop and be ready to code.

On a typical day, we start a fraction late because everyone is still getting coffee. The morning is spent on integrity issues, which everyone deals with pretty well. I lecture for a bit, and then get everyone coding for a bit while I walk around and give individual attention. Maybe this gives rise to questions and discussion. Rinse and repeat. There's some good design exercises in here as well.

Then lunch! Hopefully everyone goes to the same place and we can chat about nerdy things.

The afternoon is concurrency, in the same format as the morning. This melts everyones' brain. It's hard even if you understand it.

I finish off with a bit on transaction vs reporting and other design issues which is mostly just a lecture, and everyone can cope with this at the end of the day. Then we go out and drink beer and shoot the breeze about DB problems everyone is having.

But I don't use MySQL!

All the coding examples are designed for both MySQL and PostgreSQL, and we also discuss the trade-offs between them (which you can apply to whatever database you use most). You should have both databases installed before you arrive, you will be using both.

I know my databases.How gnarly do you get?

How do you code acts_as_list to work with unique constraints and concurrent access? How do you optimize for concurrent access (1 list, 1000 items, multiple workers)?

What do you do when DB locking can't work for you?

How do you automatically test that your code runs concurrently?

When/what type of implicit locks does MySQL place, and how do you trace down the resulting deadlocks?

How do you fake sequences in a database that doesn't support them (MySQL)?

How do you "close the gap" between an OO model mapped to a relational data store, and ensure your production data is consistent?

Even if you can answer the above questions, do you do it in your rails apps?

it was totally awesome, was great to see all the stuff I should be using! - Chris Herring

Get a taste, right now

I have produced some screencasts that show you how to solve some problems you may be having right now. These are completely free. Even if you don't register for this course, you should set aside 30 minutes to watch these. They will save you time in the future.

This is just a small glimpse of the type of thing the course covers. If you pick up anything new here, you are guaranteed to easily get value out of this course.

Register

Professional training of this calibre normally costs upwards of $500 a day. I want to get this knowledge out there though—better quality software makes the world a better place to live—so I'm offering this course at a significant discount for only $US350.

DB Is Your Friend by @xshay was an excellent course. You should definitely get involved. - Ben Hoskings

But that's not all. I am so confident in the value of this course that I am offering a full refund to anyone who comes along and doesn't find the training useful. It's risk free. Register below.

I've teamed up with the best Ruby on Rails companies and training providers to offer this session in cities all through Australia, the US and UK.